"Other" Category: Welcome to the Off-Topic Zone!

rs2000

Wow, wonderful @Michael!
Thanks a lot. Looks like a great way to go.

If all most of it goes well, I wonder when people will ask for including it on the main page again 😄

Fruitbat1919

Overall looks a good idea. I do hope that the other music category isn't abused, as I've seen some politely partizan threads using very loose musical ties to try to pretend they are 'in topic' of the forum. Those sorts of threads are just really poor excuses to push agendas and I do hope that people will try to keep anything they know that will likely become politically charged in the other category.

wim

That should be no problem. Please flag the moderators if you see that happening @Fruitbat1919. Threads that go way off topic can always be moved. If it’s on topic but just a few problem posters we may try to reach out to them.

Fruitbat1919

@wim said:
That should be no problem. Please flag the moderators if you see that happening @Fruitbat1919. Threads that go way off topic can always be moved. If it’s on topic but just a few problem posters we may try to reach out to them.

Thank you

Robin2

As i said in another thread before this announcement about the two tier ‘Other’ categories was made, i think it’s a bit of a shame as i know that personally I never get round to making the effort to check what’s been posted in the Other category not listed on the main page so I’ll miss the sometimes interesting topics introduced. That’s my laziness of course but in imagining my real world usage, i think they’ll be out of sight and out of mind.

Having the two ‘Other’ categories is a good idea though to lessen the impact.

Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

wim

@Robin2 said:
Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

I don't think that they have. Check the Other category (if it's not too much of a strain on you 😉) for @reasOne 's invitation to his discord server if you would like to keep in touch with them.

Robin2

@wim said:

@Robin2 said:
Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

I don't think that they have. Check the Other category (if it's not too much of a strain on you 😉) for @reasOne 's invitation to his discord server if you would like to keep in touch with them.

What a shame. I haven’t been here long enough to claim to have known them, or them i, but i shall miss their contributions.

Yes, I’d already seen @reasOne’s invitation which brings up a different incidental question: why do links to Discord not seem to work in Safari on iPad? They always result in an ‘invalid address’ popup for me?

wim

@Robin2 said:

@wim said:

@Robin2 said:
Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

I don't think that they have. Check the Other category (if it's not too much of a strain on you 😉) for @reasOne 's invitation to his discord server if you would like to keep in touch with them.

What a shame. I haven’t been here long enough to claim to have known them, or them i, but i shall miss their contributions.

Yes, I’d already seen @reasOne’s invitation which brings up a different incidental question: why do links to Discord not seem to work in Safari on iPad? They always result in an ‘invalid address’ popup for me?

My advice is to download the Discord app and try again to see if the URL opens the app. If not, then I'm pretty sure there's a way to join a server with a url from within the app. I forget now how it works.

Sometimes people hand out expired invite links without realizing it. The invite links you generate in the app default to expiring after 7 days. You have to change the settings in the dialog to get a permanent invite link.

Robin2

@wim said:

@Robin2 said:

@wim said:

@Robin2 said:
Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

I don't think that they have. Check the Other category (if it's not too much of a strain on you 😉) for @reasOne 's invitation to his discord server if you would like to keep in touch with them.

What a shame. I haven’t been here long enough to claim to have known them, or them i, but i shall miss their contributions.

Yes, I’d already seen @reasOne’s invitation which brings up a different incidental question: why do links to Discord not seem to work in Safari on iPad? They always result in an ‘invalid address’ popup for me?

My advice is to download the Discord app and try again to see if the URL opens the app. If not, then I'm pretty sure there's a way to join a server with a url from within the app. I forget now how it works.

Sometimes people hand out expired invite links without realizing it. The invite links you generate in the app default to expiring after 7 days. You have to change the settings in the dialog to get a permanent invite link.

Thank you @wim.

RajahP

Boss.. 👍

u0421793

Should be drunk at cellar temperature, which is around 11°C

KJH808

@yellow_eyez said:
Also, I just want to add, without responding to any specific thread or sentiment , Michael, Doug, and Wim work extremely hard at maintaining the largest online forum for iOS/ipados/etc music production - but with that said, this IS LPF, and it always was, Michael’s forum.

So I just want to reverberate THANK YOU to @Michael for continuing over a decade of providing answers and one on one interfacing with devs, music sharing, and more. And also for allowing us a platform that provides a plentiful plethora of outlets and insightful content.

I’m extremely grateful to be a part of this team, almost feel unworthy to be amongst such standup gents who really care about this community and work tirelessly at maintaining and creating and improving it

Anyone who thinks otherwise really needs to reevaluate their metrics and also remember the origins of the forum…and its current status…and make their own decisions

Best to all

♥️♥️♥️

KJH808

@wim said:
What do you have against Ducks?

It has to be said they’re little quackers

KJH808

And apparently they don’t echo

pedro

@u0421793 said:
Should be drunk at cellar temperature, which is around 11°C

Finally someone addressing the real issues. It was bothering me so much I had to crack one open to cool off (at room temperature but only cause it’s cold as hell, here)

SevenSystems

@wim said:

@SevenSystems said:
This is #peakdiplomacy! Maybe @Michael should've run for president 😂

Did we mention that you're now required to post your home address and telephone number in every post in the Other category?

I wouldn't be surprised if the EU actually made such a law tomorrow!

SevenSystems

@Michael said:

@SevenSystems said:
This is #peakdiplomacy! Maybe @Michael should've run for president 😂

😀 I built a big, beautiful wall around Other, and made @LinearLineman pay for it.

😂 He always sounds happy enough in his posts!

belldu

I hope that those who have gone elsewhere return as I value their musical contributions. I missed all the drama and wish folks could just stick to the music here. While understanding and respecting Michael's flexibility, this place is a shopfront for his excellent musical apps, and to have a bunch of people discussing often controversial non musical stuff here risks damaging all he has done if it starts appearing in searches etc...

There's plenty of room on the internet to discuss other things, and I'm not sure of the benefit of having a 'iPad musicians' discord if folks just want to go there and fill it up with off topic stuff, but up to them I guess.

wim

@belldu and @neum make a very good point about the Other category and search results.

It could be as simple as a modification to the site's robot.txt file to exclude that category, or it could be more involved. It might be something worthwhile for @Michael to look into.

Grandbear

@wim said:
@belldu and @neum make a very good point about the Other category and search results.

It could be as simple as a modification to the site's robot.txt file to exclude that category, or it could be more involved. It might be something worthwhile for @Michael to look into.

Since the URL of each thread doesn't contain the category, I think you'd need to add a meta tag like this to threads in that category:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

This is and old discussion but the suggestions may still work: https://open.vanillaforums.com/discussion/33094/how-to-add-noindex-on-certain-category

wim

Nice find @Grandbear. 👍🏼

Michael

Thank you!

craftycurate

This sounds like a well thought out and balanced solution - thanks for being flexible and willing to try things out

@Michael More power to you for juggling your development work while homeschooling, as well as trying to keep this boisterous rabble in line 👍🙏

gusgranite

Is 'Other' the only category hidden from the main view or are there more?

skiphunt

To be honest, this change has got me into the habit of just hitting the star/fav icon so that I can quickly get to the new comments on only threads I’m actually interested in.

I mean, I not always so interested in the minutia of the app interfaces, tweaking, and how others want new apps changed, etc.

Sometimes… I just want to listen to new creations, read opinions about artistic expression, look at a few new XP4N photos, and maybe 🤔 speculate on aliens a bit 👽

Much better for my desired use of the site

McD

@Fruitbat1919 said:
Overall looks a good idea. I do hope that the other music category isn't abused, as I've seen some politely partizan threads using very loose musical ties to try to pretend they are 'in topic' of the forum. Those sorts of threads are just really poor excuses to push agendas and I do hope that people will try to keep anything they know that will likely become politically charged in the other category.

Agendas are opinions. I cracked up when that video that started the curfuffle was called out because of content it may have contained.

“Did you watch it?”
“No!”

That’s censorship and we would all like that power when we are triggered to just shut down it all down.

We certainly lost more than we gained to one persons agenda.

It happens periodically and the forum returns to its purity but the community (in my view) in damaged.

Fruitbat1919

@McD said:

@Fruitbat1919 said:
Overall looks a good idea. I do hope that the other music category isn't abused, as I've seen some politely partizan threads using very loose musical ties to try to pretend they are 'in topic' of the forum. Those sorts of threads are just really poor excuses to push agendas and I do hope that people will try to keep anything they know that will likely become politically charged in the other category.

Agendas are opinions. I cracked up when that video that started the curfuffle was called out because of content it may have contained.

“Did you watch it?”
“No!”

That’s censorship and we would all like that power when we are triggered to just shut down it all down.

We certainly lost more than we gained to one persons agenda.

It happens periodically and the forum returns to its purity but the community (in my view) in damaged.

engage with the threads topic in general. im not interested in engaging with you personally on this topic.

skiphunt

This bookmarking thing is great! I can't believe it's been here a good while and I never used it.

The bookmarking will be great to not only bookmark the threads I'm actually interested in, but also when I'm traveling... not having to click though several pages to find a thread I want to catch up on.

oldsynthguy

@Robin2 said:
Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

Yeah, great contributions from those three, hopefully they’ll come back now the dust has settled 🙂

skiphunt

@oldsynthguy said:

@Robin2 said:
Most importantly, has this restructuring and loosening (within the non music Other) meant that the users who seemed like they were leaving ( @Svetlovska, @LinearLineman, @dendy and any others i’ve missed) have reconsidered? I hope so.

Yeah, great contributions from those three, hopefully they’ll come back now the dust has settled 🙂

Yes, they should come back now!